I'm Julian Liniger and I'm here with my co-founder Adem, we are from Relai and try to get some Bitcoin into everyone's pocket in Europe!
AMA!
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I'm Julian Liniger and I'm here with my co-founder Adem, we are from Relai and try to get some Bitcoin into everyone's pocket in Europe!
AMA!
I wasn't talking about paying directly in BTC. That I already do it. I am talking about paying fiat bills, and Relai to be the intermediary. Not sure if you remember the old days of 2015 with Cashila, that was integrated into Mycelium wallet. I was paying fiat bills, directly from my BTC wallet. Just providing the details. Nowadays we have some, but not so many.
Here are some of those intermediaries
We had some plans to launch a Relai VISA or Mastercard card last year but we decided to focus on the savings aspect first. It could be something we can work on in the future though
Nah VISA is garbage... we do not go back to using fiat... I will tell you from now: I will not use such product.
I would.
only fiat maxis will use such thing. I am not.
Do you have plans to expand outside of Europe?
Yes we do, but this will take more time. This year, we are mainly focusing on winning our home turf Switzerland. In 2025, once we have the MiCA-License, we will dedicate more resources into expanding into all the EU countries and potentially the UK. In 2026, we will then start our global expansion, starting with the US and the Middle East, possibly including mergers and acquisitions with great already existing local companies. The ambition to expand is in our DNA, but more time is needed! :)
If I understand correctly, every bitcoin purchase on Relai is on-chain transaction. Aren't you afraid that you lead customers into creating many small UTXOs which might be very impractical in the future high fees environment? Thank you.
We are definitely aware of such a potential issue, it's true that at some point low amount orders can/will end up being dust. We are therefore working on the following solutions:
Buying directly into LN is definitely a desired feature. I will start using Relai once that's implemented.
Just make all small transactions forcibly to Lightning. Only when the user wants to go on-chain, let him when he sees and agrees to the fee at that time.
Have you noticed different opinions about Bitcoin across the European continent? For example:
I might be biased but I think in Switzerland people are very excited about bitcoin, both bottom-up (20% of people hold BTC) and top-down (regulators are very open about BTC). Our users mostly come from Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy and France, and also Spain and Czech Republic seem to have high adoption rates from what I hear. I think the Northern and Eastern European countries are in general still more passive, I wouldn't say pessimistic though, they just need more time! :)
Where do you get this number from? I really doubt that. Of couse you have some insights but even then...
Do you plan to make satellite companies or an physical expand into other countries.
Beste Grüße :)
Yes we are! Our headquarter and holding company will always be in Zurich, but already now we are opening up a new office in Paris for our French license, which will turn into a MiCA-License in 2025. Other hubs like Berlin, Vienna and Milano are starting to establish themselves, with first employees being hired in these important countries, at one point we could start satellite companies / offices there as well, why not? :) Liebe Grüsse zurück!
Why is Switzerland such a well respected financial hub in Europe?
Will that continue to be the case on a Bitcoin standard?
Switzerland has a long tradition of being a country that is politically neutral and independent, with a very solid regulatory & legal system, coupled with a directly democtratic government. Swiss people have a culture of unparalleled work ethic, high quality standards, and trust/reliability. This enabled Switzerland to become a hub for the financial industry, especially banking & wealth management, also because it attracted a lot of rich people from Europe and the whole world. I think the intention of Swiss people and the government is for this reputation to prevail and be open to bitcoin, even our central bank is usually quite forward looking and I could imagine that they will be a first mover if a bitcoin standard or even hyperbitcoinization situation were to unfold in the future.
for those who are not aware, this is Relai’s website: https://relai.app/
Great website, props to our marketing team! :)
I'd like to extend my congratulations on your entrepreneurial initiative. It's wonderful to learn that you're working solely with Bitcoin.
How is your business different from a typical brokerage firm ?
Thank you for the kind words, here are a few things that make Relai very special :)
We have also just launched our integrated Lightning wallet so you can stack sats on auto-invest to save BTC, and swap them into Lightning to spend BTC. Our goal is to become the only bitcoin app you need on your phone, while staying bitcoin-only, self-custodially, and swiss-made. There is no such thing out there, so this is what makes us different from typical broker firms.
Thats just wrong. Every bank transaction is KYC.
true true, it seems to me like false advertising. One cannot buy BTC without KYC through Relai. KYC is indirectly via CC and bank.
Very interesting about the non-custodial wallet in the app itself
Have you ever experienced a pressure from the no coiners who refused to buy at $20k and now they want you share with them your sats? E.g. "You got a lot of dollars, can you help me to acquire a new car" or "can your borrow me money? (with no intentions to give it back)"
I would say: not yet...
Ok. Maybe it's only my case
Why do you require to open a new order from the app for every buy? Couldn't be easier to just match the code in the bank transaction's description? This would permit a faster utilization, just do a bank transaction with whatever amount I want, and I'm all set. Your competitor has this. Unfortunately I stopped using Relai for this exact reason.
Also a plain web interface would be nice.
We used to have it like that initially but this ended up creating more problems for our users. We would need to refund if a user forget the code or mistype it, that's why we request our users to create an order first.
What advantages and disadvantages come with the MiCA license? Is it hard to get the license? Do you see things going forward or backward in Europe? Have things reached a point of no-return already? What is the future of Bitcoin in Europe? Is MiCA the endpoint in terms of regulations?
Why is everyone starting in Europe or America?
Do you have any plans for Indian Subcontinent in near future?
We are from Switzerland and we can benefit from the advantages a Swiss "license" provides. Regarding expansion: #484165
Interesting...
Do you comply with the EU regulations?
I like this, you can start with my pocket ;)
We can serve all of Europe with our current license but are also applying for a French license currently to be ready for the new MiCA legislation that will come soon
Is your company only for buying BTC, or also for selling? (if latter is a yes, do you allow withdrawing EUR besides CHF?)
It seems you developed a non-custodial wallet, where is the code? I don't find your github page.
You can buy and sell (to EUR or CHF) with Relai. The code is not open source but you can verify the 12 words generated from the app via any other wallet. You can also directly stack to an external wallet using the Relai wallet just to create orders
When will users be able to buy corn directly into the custodial LN wallet? (if that's not already possible)
The LN wallet is non-custodial and we'll implement buy/sell via LN this year
Great! How is the business handling the information from buyers, such as bank card details ?
Nice vision! How do you plan to get there? Tangible short term and then long term milestones?
Does Relai plan to support xpub so buys can be sent straight to a different wallet without going through the app? If so, wen?
wen eth?
the 32nd of the never ending month 😉
Pure signal! <3
I just wanted to thank you for being the best way to buy Bitcoin weekly regardless of the price. You are the best